Today’s recipe is actually not something new, but good old keto courgette cake in cacao version. It’s fluffy, chocolatey, moist and stuffed with nuts. There’s nothing better on a rainy day than chocolate cake and book. BTW I have to recommend you Donna Tart’s book “The Goldfinch“. I’m not the best with describing books, so I will quote a description from GoodReads:

The Goldfinch combines vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and suspense, while plumbing with a philosopher’s calm the deepest mysteries of love, identity, and art. It is an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.

And that’s exactly what you get reading this book. It sucks you in for long hours. If you like a bit of crime story and a little drama, mixed with story of a very special painting, this book is for you. It’s going to be perfect for long rainy Autumn evenings…especially it has almost 1000 pages 😉

But going back to the cake, it’s based on it’s basic version you can find here. Adding some cacao powder and nuts if you wish, and you get completely different cake. It’s keto, it’s low carb and it’s very easy to make. I’ve only managed to grab last 3 pieces to make a photo, before my partner ate everything.

keto chocolate courgette cake

INGREDIENTS (for 9 inch round baking trey)

NOTE: I use 250 ml glass as my measuring cup.

• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/3 cup sweetener of your choice (I used xylitol)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 small courgette
• 3 large eggs
• 3 tbsp clarified butter
• 3 tbsp liquid of choice coconut milk, almond milk etc. (I use almond milk)
• 5 tsp raw cacao powder (regular will be fine as well)
• optionally: 2 handfuls of nuts (in my case: walnuts, almonds, cashew, brazil)

DIRECTIONS

First melt the butter and let it to cool down. Grate courgette on small holes and leave it for now, we will come back to it later.

Beat the eggs with handheld mixer. First only eggs, after 2 minutes add sweetener and beat until fluffy. Then add baking powder, baking soda, butter and cacao powder and beat for few seconds so everything combines. Now add coconut flour and 3 tbsp of milk. Stir – you can do it using mixer or with spoon. You can mix eggs and sweetener without using handheld mixer (or other similar tool), you can use fork or whisk to combine all ingredients, but I’ve noticed that if I beat the eggs, cake is more fluffy.

Now it’s time for courgette. Squeeze excess juice and put it to your dough. Again stir thoroughly. This time my dough went quite liquid, but maybe it’s because I had a really big eggs. Came out that cake went very nice and fluffy, so if your dough is not that quite thick as usual, no worries 🙂

As a final step add two handfuls of nuts if you decided to use them, and again give it a good stir.

Grease baking tray (I used silicone one, so there’s no need) and pour the dough. Bake for about 30- 35 minutes in 180°C (or 150°C with fan). Check the cake with toothpick or wooden skewer. If there’s no remains of dough on it, it means it’s ready. Always keep an eye on the oven, because each one is different, and we don’t want any unwanted surprises 😉

After baking keep it in the oven to cool down, just slightly open the door.

Enjoy!